1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates generally to television receivers and more particularly to a television receiver having a channel skip function.
2. Description of the Prior Art
There is known a television receiver having a channel skip function. This channel skip function will be described. As, for example, shown in FIG. 1, N skip flag data (SFLG) are stored in a skip memory of a television receiver. When a user presses an up-key or a down-key for the channel, the channel is scanned sequentially in the up or down direction. At the same time, if SFLG="0", the corresponding channel is skipped. If on the other hand SFLG="1", the channel skip operation is not carried out at the corresponding channel.
In this case, the user can freely set the skip and stop of the channel, or the user can freely set the skip flag data to "0" or "1". The user can select a desired channel by using ten keys and then set the skip flag data SFLG corresponding to the channel selected to "1" or "0" by pressing an add key or an erase key.
A total of 125 channels of standard television broadcast and CATV broadcast through radio waves are available, for example, in the U.S.A. In practice, of the 125 channels only about 60 channels, depending on different localities, are used for television broadcasting. Upon shipment from the factories, however, only about 2 to 13 channels for standard television broadcasts are preset in the television receiver.
Accordingly, when the user has purchased a television receiver having the channel skip function, the user has to set the channel skip flag data SFLG to "1" with respect to all of the remaining desired channels except for the preset 2 to 13 channels of the 60 channels. In other words, the user must repeatedly select the desired channels, using the ten keys, and set the channel skip flag data SFLG to "1", using the add key, for each of the remaining channels beyond those preset at the factory. This operation might have to be done as many as forty-eight times.
This becomes a severe burden on the user, and there is a large possibility that the user will misoperate the ten keys, and so on.